Should you pay your ransom?

Posted:
1 year, 11 months
ago

Today we’re talking about security, ransonware and we’re going to talk about paying your ransom. Should you pay your ransom?

The FBI and the United States government highly recommend that we don’t pay the ransom. They want to kill this industry. It’s a terrible industry that basically extorts money out of American households and businesses.

I heard this from a security expert and I want to throw this out there and I think it’s extremely valuable. Why not pay the ransom? Well, these are criminal syndicates that you’re supporting with the ransom, and the scenario that intrigued me the most is, so, I’m Joe, a business owner. I have a CryptoLocker come in and we have a $500 ransom. And then I go, I don’t have a backup, I pay the ransom or ignore it. So, you pay the ransom and six months later, you hear a knock at the door and the FBI is there saying, ‘Hey, we see that you have funded this [insert this terrorist organization name here.] We now will start investigating you. Why did you fund this terrorist organization? What’s going on here?’

So, think about that before you pay your ransom. I personally would not want to have that kind of phone call or that kind of knock at my door, so I’m the panda.